Robert De Niro walked onto Carnegie Hall's stage on Tuesday night, unannounced and to loud applause. He didn't make any speeches, at least none of his own. Instead, the Oscar-winning actor recited a call for civility, as first spoken by Abraham Lincoln. "Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense," De Niro said, using the words that Lincoln that delivered in 1838, early in his public life, per the AP. "Let those materials be molded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws."
De Niro, a featured performer at the 39th annual benefit concert for the nonprofit cultural and educational organization Tibet House US, didn't dwell on current events, or on President Trump, whom he has denounced often and fiercely over the past decade. But his reason for giving that particular speech had everything to do with the country today: De Niro was reading excerpts from Lincoln's "Lyceum Address," a warning against mob violence that Lincoln delivered to a young man's debating society in Springfield, Illinois.
Philip Glass, a co-director of Tuesday night's benefit, used the address as inspiration for his Symphony No. 15, "Lincoln." He was supposed to premiere his symphony at the Kennedy Center in June, but he announced earlier this year that he was calling off the performance, citing Trump's ouster of the center's leadership. Trump's name was rarely spoken by anyone during the nearly three-hour show Tuesday night, but the president was clearly on the minds of numerous performers—including Elvis Costello, Laurie Anderson, and Maya Hawke—who denounced the war against Iran, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and what they saw as a general spirit of violence and indifference.
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